Known for pressing beyond conventional wisdom, Mary Tolan has always paved new pathways. Her career began at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting). During her rapid ascension through the ranks, Tolan attended the Executive MBA Program and earned her degree in 1992.
While maintaining a vigilant focus on growth strategies and execution, Tolan's teams partnered with clients to unleash value for shareholders across a variety of industries. As group chief executive of the resources operating group, she launched the meter-to-cash revenue business for the global power industry.
It was only a matter of time before she leveraged her decades of business-building knowledge and her passion for entrepreneurship, sparked by courses at Chicago Booth, to create a new company. In 2003, she founded Accretive Health, which manages the revenue process for health care providers. Accretive partners with clients to recover revenue leakage, and thereby produces an operating margin that stabilizes a hospital's financials. Accretive also provides the critical infrastructure for health care providers to take total population health accountability to improve quality outcomes while reducing total cost of care. By 2009, Accretive had $510.2 million in revenue. In May 2010, Tolan's firm completed a successful IPO, which valued the company at $1.3 billion.